Summary Of Children Need To Play Not Compete By Jessica Statsky

Statsky’s Argument is Not Explored Broadly Enough In the article “Children Need to Play, Not Compete” by Jessica Statsky, the author describes how the competitiveness of organized sports that have been popular among many young American children in recent years can have damaging effects on their physical or psychological well-being and proper development. Statsky said an apparent disadvantage of competitive sports is young children’s vulnerability to physical injury. For instance, she mentioned about Professor Tutko’s claim that many contact sports such as tackle football are physically harmful for young children. Besides that, children’s fear of getting hurt can also discourage them from engaging in sports activities as she refers to

Dr. Daniel Gould, director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports, in his essay “Are High School Sports Good For Kids?” argues that problems with high school sports are beginning to outway the benefits.. He supports his claim by providing evidence of how sports are beneficial to kids, explaining the problems within sports, and extending the importance of what creates a positive response from sports. Gould’s purpose is to inform coaches, principals, and parents about what makes sports beneficial and how to prevent the problems in order to allow kids to learn and become better citizens. He establishes an informative tone for coaches, principals, and parents.

Football is considered as America’s favorite sport, it is usually many parents go to sport to get their child to active. Although in recent years a lot of parents have either taken their children out of football or will not allow them to play. This is for good reason as rising awareness of concussions and CTE (Chronic traumatic encephalopathy) have come about. CTE is a degenerative brain disease that causes people’s personalities to change and give them depression. In the article “Should you let your kids play football” the author Roxanne Jones presents her case on why parents should make an informed decision on whether on not people should let their child play football through anecdotal stories that use emotions to get people to think rationally

In “Do Sports Build Character or Damage it?” Mark Edmundson explains the pros and cons of children who grow up playing football. Firstly, he believes the perseverance it takes to show up for hard practices is useful later in life. Especially when they get frustrated with something and don’t notice the little bits of progress they are making.

In “Children Need to Play, Not Compete.” Jessica statsky brought forward a pressing issue of competitive sports that has now become a part of our lives. Statsky claims that these competitive sports have a harmful effect on a child’s mind. The extreme physical pressure is quite damaging as well. The injuries children face can sometimes take forever to heal itself.

Summary “Children Need to Play, Not Compete,” by Jessica Statsky is a thoughtful insight on the competitive sports for children. She is of the view that the competitive sports can ruin the enjoyment that games are supposed to provide. These methods of playing the games like adults can prove to be lethal for physical and psychological health. The author quotes from an authentic source that “Kids under the age of fourteen are not by nature physical.” (Tutko)

More and more often you hear about young kids quitting sports due to being burned out. Julianna W. Miner reports, “According to a poll from the National Alliance for Youth Sports, around 70 percent of kids in the United States stop playing organized sports by the age of 13 because ’it’s just not fun anymore’”(Washington Post). This can be caused by the fact that parents are playing select ball at early ages such as 7 or 8 years old. Playing competitively in any sport at such can early age can take a huge emotional toll on kids. At such an early age, kids should play these sports for fun and entertainment, not competition.

The Director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports,Daniel Gould in his Article, “Are High School Sports Good For Kids” suggests that high school sports are an integral part of American society. He supports this claim by first saying how sports have educational benefits, then talking about their effect on the child as a citizen, and finally claiming that sports give adolescents increased aspirations. Goulds purpose is to illustrate the benefits of children taking part in school sports. He adopts a analytical tone an older audience.

My mother and other parents and coaches know that it's good for them to have fun playing the game they love, but they also know that it's good for them to compete and try their best to get what they want. The coaches and parents know what the real world is like, there's all kinds of competition in it. These sports can help these kids prepare for their soon to be future.

Dr. Frank L. Smoll states, “All children and youth need vigorous physical activity as part of their daily lives, and sports provide the benefits of exercise and the potential for acquiring a sense of accomplishment.” (Smoll 1/2).

Some kids will play rougher and more physically than others trying to do better than kids on the opposing team. The Journal of the American Medical Association reports, over the past thirty years “fractures increased by fifty-six percent in girls and thirty-two percent in boys” (see figure 1). Children and kids often continue to play sports even after injuring themselves or after being injured by another person because of the fear of their parent and or coaches expectations(s) for them to win and continue playing (Muller). Parents often do not like to see their child fail in a sport they want them to succeed in (Wallace). Furthermore, parents will also push their child into sports frequently for their own enjoyment as well as pushing them into sports to keep them in shape.

To most kids and students, competitive sports are a gateway to blow off some steam or to have fun. To parents, the sports that their children play and the lessons that they teach are an important part of their development and life. Despite what many ‘experts’ would like you to believe, both of these statements are completely true. I believe that kids should be allowed to play competitive sports due to the health benefits, the lessons that they can teach, and as a result of the advanced equipment and rules that are focused on making sports safe, as well as the fact that sports can keep kids out of trouble. One extremely important reason that forces me to take the position that kids should be allowed to compete in competitive sports is the health benefits that children who play sports recieve.

Children who participate in competitive sports at a young age experience more serious negative impacts than positives, including a risk of severe injury, losing

Too many professional athletes are acting like ignorant fools. Professional athletes are setting a terrible example for today’s youth. They have cocky attitudes and have no respect for others. They go out and participate in things they shouldn’t do. Now, not all professional athletes are bad role models, Mike Trout, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, John Wall, Cristiano Ronaldo, Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson, Roger Federer and many more have benefited people by being amazing role models.

“In the U.S., about 30 million children and teens participate in some form of organized sports, and more than 3.5 million injuries each year” claims Stanford Children’s Health. It’s definitely true that competitive sports can cause all sorts of injuries from big to small. The media teaches people simply that sports leads to horrific injuries and can cause stress, but what the mainstream media hardly discusses are the great benefits of competitive sports. While there may be some negatives to competitive sports, that’s just life, and to add on to that; there are plenty of benefits which are sure to override to media’s facts. Kids should play competitive sports because competitive sports teach children powerful life lessons, contributes to their social and mental stability, and because of the physical gain competitive sports provides.